Tag Archives: society

Your words, written and shared and read and liked and propagated ad infinitum on a social networking website are just that—they are words.

You read and regurgitate what you read but do you comprehend? Do you understand? Do you let the meaning of what you have read be completely and utterly absorbed?

The notions of herd mentality and social coercion are very alive on the internet and Facebook is their prime real estate.

The internet is our medium, it is our society’s agora/piazza/plaza/forum where we can meet and where we can communicate in an effective manner in order to share ideas and better foster virtuous endeavors as the Greeks, Romans, French, Spanish and Italians did before us. The internet is not evil—its idea is a noble one. It is our responsibility to ensure that it is safe and our duty to denounce those behaviors that seek to destroy its nobility.

When bad things happen to good people—a tragedy, a travesty, a disaster—the first thing I think is “that’s life my friend” (c’est la vie mon ami). When a person does a bad thing to good people, they are automatically labeled, branded ‘villain’ and ostracized. This is not inherently a form of bad social interaction, although it is in our instinctual behavior to separate the weak from the strong and cull the undesirables from the herd. Like most social behaviors, however, we over emphasize the import of particular actions and misbehaviors in our world. Ask yourself, why do I care more about this action and not another most similar? Analyze your answer and realize that you yourself are a member of a herd. You are a part of society and will never be apart from it. As such, you have a moral obligation to your fellow citizens (herd members if you will). As humans, we are all part of humanity. Let us not lose that humanity, let not the herdsman guide our herd through media coercion for his agenda because I promise you that agenda is far from a virtuous one.

Ask yourself before you speak or write or post or tweet or blog or call or scream or shout or utter anything aloud above the whimper of a crying mother: What does the world really need me to do? What can I say to make this better? What can I state to help foster good will towards my fellow man?

Let us be like unto a herd, unto a storm, a tempest of arduous, virtuous endeavor! Let the passion of these events (however so tragic we deem them) that now fuels us and motivates us and stirs within our very souls the sameness, the connectedness and oneness of all humankind, ignite within our beings the ashes and kindles of the great fire of our love for one another and bring about a momentous change in our world, our environment, our lives, our society, and our internet. I implore you, be better men. Be the change the world needs, not more of the same. If every artist painted with the same brush, or played the same instrument, all art would have less scope and would be limited in its grandeur and enlightening capacity…let us not rose-tint the internet or the world.

Remember this if nothing else I have writ:

“Our laws are here to protect us not enslave us, our government here to serve us not us serve them, our deeds here to prove our virtue not worth, and our words should be here to make us better men, not worse.”

For what the world is concerned our individual power is merely our ability, or in most cases inability, to affect change. How do we occur? What of a manner of happenstance causes us to change? Is it our environment or our lifestyle? Our choices matter not when they are neutered with no ability to affect change for the betterment of man or for the betterment of society. What process, what steps must occur to start a ripple with a stone? The world needs tsunamis. The world needs a tidal wave of new ideas, new motivations; endeavors that are just-worthy and honest and better the lives of all people. What is a better life?

What is a better standard in which to live? Greed is never satisfied, only parched and ever-seeking to drink the world. Let us not wait and wonder, stop and consider how change will affect us and the world we live in—let us strive to be heard, be witnessed, be felt, be understood, be valued and appreciated as a contributing group, as a responsive collective, and as an intelligent whole. Let the world hear that we are in need and desperation, that we are overlooked, abused, and ignored. We are the silent majority. We are The People. “We” is as strong a word as ever created. We is us, we is you and me, brother and sister, mother and father, son and daughter, neighbor and friend, stranger and lover—we are a nation of citizens, we are a body of states in a state of disarray. Our flag hangs idly as flames slowly climb its flagpole—seeking to consume and destroy all that we know—all that we are as Americans. Why do you have when others do not? Ask what is inappropriate and disproportionate wealth? Why does the world prefer to use instead of give and provide and offer? What can you offer the world? Can you sing? Are you a doctor? Do you remember when people used to “go for a walk”?

But I discourse; I ask again what does man require? Our good document declares “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. We live and are free to do within the constraints of society. How do we pursue happiness without just means? How can we, as a people, as Americans, be happy when our brothers are dying, our mothers are crying, our children are starving, we are jobless, and our neighbor is worse than we are? What kind of state of disarray? Why are we so disillusioned? We are in denial, we close our eyes to think of a better time, a better means, but we do nothing! We stay in silence and humility, we close our doors in hopes that the world’s problems are not our own, we cry in desperation, we cry a desperate tear; and the blood that stains our hands is our own. Let the willing be merciless, let the strong be unstoppable, allow the passion of life and the hope of happiness invigorate the tiniest of soul on earth—the faintest light will shine, and in that meek and humble and timid and shy innocence, let the world succumb. The world is weeping; do not let this wound—yours and mine—our malevolent din—go unheard, go
without change, without forward movement and progress. With its spheres of influence, any group, any organization, any entity can affect change to a lesser or greater degree. America is a victim of efficiency. The eventuality of a capitalist, money-first, people-second society is that we are not paper, we are people. Set a goal, set several. We must affect change; we must influence the world, and influence men to do what is right, and what is necessary. Morality is the best necessity for any society. Want is individualistic and inefficient and unproductive. To those in power I ask only to remember your oaths, remember your people, and do as virtue would have you.

To my fellow Americans, I ask more. For those willing to affect change, for those whose bloodied tears go unnoticed, for all those who pursue happiness in their life—then with their god-given right to liberty—I say let us join together, be seen, be heard, and make a better future, a better tomorrow, a brighter day, and a happier life for us all.